What every parent should know about The Hunger Games

Every few years, a publishing phenomenon that captures the interest of young readers, and older ones, translates into a multiplex phenom as well. We got it with “Harry Potter.” We got it—one more movie to go—with “Twilight.” And it looks like we have it with “The Hunger Games,” the Suzanne Collins trilogy that’s scheduled to be turned into four separate films, the first of which arrives in theaters Thursday at midnight.

The question on a lot of parents’ minds right now is a simple one, more pressing than any questions of quality. Is it too rough for kids, even for preteens who devoured the books, as my own 5th grade son did last year? The answer is more complex than the question. “The Hunger Games” operates from an irresistible hypocrisy: It decries a futuristic, dehumanized society where annual, gladiatorial “hunger games” are played by two dozen kids between the ages of 12 and 18. And yet Collins’ books draws its dread-filled suspense from just how many different ways the characters, notably the heroine, Katniss, must kill to survive another round.

So basically “The Hunger Games” is like middle school or upper school with slightly harsher outcomes at the end of an average day. The good news is this: The film works. It treats the violence seriously enough to matter, and the movie doesn’t make the mistake of turning the action sequences into excuses to stoke a young audience’s bloodlust. The book was no “Lord of the Flies”; there’s not much in it beyond its life-or-death premise. But that premise was more than enough for most readers, and I suspect it’ll be enough for moviegoers as well.